1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for generating multi-dimensional graphic data from input data including numerical data and, more particularly, to a presentation support environment system and method capable of easily and effectively preparing a presentation reference suitable for the intention and preference of a presenter.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as information processing techniques have been developed, various high-performance low-end information processing systems have been designed, and the systems have widely prevailed. In addition, various input/output devices are extensively developed, and a satisfactory man-machine interface is designed. Under these circumstances, computer graphics which are conventionally used for only making expensive commercial films have been attempted to be used for a variety of general presentations. The computer graphics can be applied for general use in a price and a processing speed.
When a computer graphics tool and a computer graphics system are used, operating techniques of the tool and system must be acquired first. It is, however, generally difficult to acquire these operating techniques, and a long time is required for acquiring the operating techniques. In addition, even if they are acquired, a presentation reference capable of clearly representing a theme cannot easily be prepared because of a poor capability (sense) for preparing the presentation reference. Therefore, it is difficult to sufficiently enhance a function of preparing the presentation reference.
For example, a presentation reference having an organization which is unbalanced as a whole is easily prepared, or a presentation reference having an unclear theme is easily prepared because information is excessively explained to minute levels. In contrast to this, when information is excessively omitted, a presentation reference having unclear contents may often be prepared.
A reason for causing the above conditions is described as follows. That is, although there are various constraints for completing a picture between elements constituting the presentation reference, the presentation reference is prepared without satisfaction of these various constraints.
Therefore, for example, a presentation reference must be prepared in sufficient consideration of balances of the sizes and colors of components and backgrounds constituting a presentation reference, the maximum number of elements capable of being sensed by men in one picture, and an element sensed by men as the most important element as a value of an ordinate in a graph is generally felt more important than a value of an abscissa.
Although a presenter who can prepare a good presentation reference generally has no clear consciousness of the above constraints, the presenter prepares a presentation reference without omitting the constraints so as to satisfy the constraints. In contrast to this, a presenter who cannot prepare a good presentation does not notice the constraints at all, fails to notice the constraints, or fails to satisfactorily set the constraints themselves. As a result, the presenter cannot prepare an impressive presentation reference in spite of his hardship.
In general, a new expressing method cannot be easily organized as a reference, and a lot of working hours are required for organizing the new method. Therefore, a large number of presentation references each having a certain tendency (pattern) are easily prepared, and routine presentations are often performed. For example, when a graphics tool capable of interactively making a bar graph or the like is used, since the size, the shape, the color, or the like of the bar graph cannot be almost set from a wide range of selection, a presentation reference highly tends to be prepared as a routine "picture".
In addition, even if there is a sample related to a new expressing method, it is very difficult to make a picture (presentation reference) with reference to the sample. For this reason, a presenter who is poor at use of illustrations and drawings often prepares a presentation reference using only verbal expressions. That is, in many cases, use of other expressions than the verbal expression is rejected only because operating techniques of shapes and ruled lines must be acquired to use graphic expressions.
A presenter who does not like the verbal expression often uses only block diagrams whatever the presenter explains. For this reason, in many cases, even when presentation contents are changed, presentation references represented by connecting boxes (blocks) (letters are described in the boxes) by lines and arrows are always prepared.
In a conventional computer graphics tool or a conventional computer graphics system, it is difficult to prepare a presentation reference in which a theme is effectively appealed, and the organizations of presentation references are similar to each other though the contents of the presentation reference are different from each other, thereby easily preparing tedious presentation references.